Entering Centaurus: Court stays collection of parking fee

Petitioner’s counsel argues car park is on CDA land.

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Tuesday restrained the Centaurus management from collecting parking fee from visitors.

IHC Chief Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi passed the restraining order in response to a petition filed by a capital’s resident, Syed Ameer who had challenged the imposition of parking fee. Advocate Babar Awan, representing the petitioner, argued that the Centaurus management is charging a parking fee of Rs200 from car owners and Rs100 from motorcyclists, despite the fact that the car park falls in the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) jurisdiction.

The court issued notices to CDA chairman and the Centaurus management and sought their replies in two weeks.

The petitioner’s counsel informed the court that the management of the recently opened four-storey mall shopping mall, which has around 250 shops,started parking fee from the visitors which was illegal.

He contended that the management of the Centaurus shopping mall has established a car park for visitors over 48 square yards of CDA land.

“The management doest not have an allotment letter nor has the CDA allowed it to establish a car park on its land, therefore collecting fee from the public is illegal,” Awan argued.

The petitioner’s counsel requested the court to restrain the management from collecting the fee.



The $350 million Centaurus complex is the first ever project in the history of the federal capital, which includes a five-star hotel, two residential towers and a corporate tower in addition to the mall.

The Centaurus Mall has a five-screen cinema, a fun city for children, a food court, international retail outlets and four levels of parking in the basement. On March 8, former premier Raja Pervez Ashraf had inaugurated it.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2013.